Menu

Social Media Sinks Ships

The idea that foreign spies were always watching was a common theme that played out during the cold war, one that was revitalized after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 for several years. However, between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the World Trade Center, the way that information is transmitted changed dramatically. The rise of social media such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter have led to a vast array of access points for the common citizen to discover information they normally would not have had readily available.

This parody poster simulates much of the animosity and feeling that existed around the era of spies and the power of limited information that was the cold war. However, it now does so in a humorous fashion, playing off of the character cap that Twitter has on its posts. With Twitter you are only allowed to type so many letters on a keyboard, so now if you wish to transmit information, you must be brief as the poster specifies.

This poster appeals in many ways to a generation raised on social media but educated on the events of the past. The cold war, Cuban missile crisis, and fall of the Berlin Wall are commonly taught in high schools, and for many the age of espionage holds a certain appeal. This poster seeks to point out the humor of that era in a modern context.

The poster uses simple, but easily understandable images which parody off of the simple styles of mass produced posters from the 50’s through the 80’s. They are visually appealing, using bright colors that match those used by the twitter logo so that the poster images are more readily identifiable with the text.

The parody is most apparent in the actual symbols which are used. The bird depicted here is obviously not the little bird that is the typical twitter logo, rather it is a blue shaded form of what may perhaps be the American eagle, representing the United States. Above fly a flock of birds in formation, likely parodying similar images which used planes in order to inspire confidence in the American air force.

Posters such as this one are a great source of intelligent humor for those familiar with originals or those similar from days that have gone by. However sometimes they also serve the same effect as their predecessors. Homegrown terrorists have been a fear of the United States since the 9/11 bombings, and the idea of a sleeper cell in the US has been thought over since the cold war. So as pleasant as a parody may be, sometimes it is still propaganda.